The digital future according to ex-HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman—featured in videos from NYU

Comments:

• Michael Pastore says:

  November 23, 2009 at 12:37 pm

  Often, when people from the corporate publishing world speak, their advice and experience seem pertinent only to the five largest publishing corporations. There is not much in these talks (and in these conferences, and articles) that is useful and practical for Independent authors and publishers — whose tactics and budgets and resources are vastly different.

  Not so, with this excellent talk from Jane Friedman. She says that she has known for years that corporate publishing is broken, and that the future of big publishing will be chaotic and difficult. She supports independent publishing, and she will be trying to focus on the most difficult aspect of the business: the marketing.

  I do object to the segment of this video where Jane makes disparaging remarks about Mike Shatzkin. It wasn’t a prepared remark: someone asked her what she thought of “FiledByAuthor”. Without being dishonest, Jane could have addressed that project, not the person.

  Everyone involved in publishing is in the same sinking boat: people are reading less, and the value of good books is being lost in our consumer culture. At best, those of us in publishing can support and encourage one another, and share information. At the least, let us not be unkind.

  Other than that lapse, I found this video very instructive, and I’m looking forward to learning more about Friedman’s new project.

  Michael Pastore
  50 Benefits of Ebooks
• Greg T. Gordon says:

  November 23, 2009 at 4:20 pm

  I work for Open Road Integrated Media. I recently reviewed Jane Friedman’s speech and Q&A that she gave at NYU, and I do not find anything disparaging about her remarks on Mike Shatzkin, and neither does she. She says that “Mike Shatzkin is really smart” and feels that he “knows a lot about the publishing industry”. I just wanted to clarify that there was nothing unkind in her response to this question.
• Michael Pastore says:

  November 24, 2009 at 9:48 am

  If you look at part 3 of this video series, at around 6 minutes (after Jane says that “Mike Shatzkin is really smart.”), Jane has been asked a question about “FiledBy”, and she says:

  “But I wasn’t sure what they are doing, because they are NOT publishers.”

  and a bit later,

  “Mike Shatzkin obviously knows a lot about the publishing industry, but they’re NOT publishers.”

  One could take that as a plain statement of fact; or one could look for implications, and assume the worst, that is: If you are not a publisher, then you cannot succeed in this kind of business nearly as well as someone who is, or has been a publisher.

  I am very glad that Greg and Jane clarified this statement, and pointed out that I should not have assumed the worst.

  Paul Biba, please let me know if you can give me the divine power to revise my earlier comment, or delete it so that it can be replaced by a more optimistic one.

  Michael Pastore
  50 Benefits of Ebooks
• David Rothman says:

  November 24, 2009 at 1:19 pm

  @Michael: Not to worry—your intentions are clear. It’s a bit too late to remove your remark, since it’s been up there for a day or so. But you’ve already revised the comment, in effect. Jane, Greg and Mike will know where you’re coming from. Furthermore, I think people will appreciate the honesty you’ve displayed. I do! What’s more, I’ve enjoyed your many other comments.

  Thanks,
  David The Hardly Infallible
  Editor-Publisher, TeleRead.org